T1B

Hawkwind's Space Ritual (financed by a fluke hit single "Silver Machine") tour roared through Britain and the US (circa 1973) in all its psychedelic glory. It's an experience captured on disc to deliriously grand effect! With a sound finding itself in a netherworld between early Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath, Hawkwind blew minds everywhere it went with a lavish extravaganza of lights, chattering electronics, sci-fi poetry, Stacia's exotic dancing, sci-fi and fantasy tales with charmingly goofy lyrics (see "Orgone Accumulator" for example, with such lines as "It's no social integrator, it's a one-man isolator" and "Turns eyeballs into craters") relentlessly rocking and crunchy riffing, disembodied woodwinds bleating and blatting happily away and certifiable sci-fi nutcase Robert Calvert lending his poetic talents to the proceedings.

The Highlights: A gloriously over-the-top "7 X 7" segueing into "Sonic Attack/Time We Left This World Today" where Calvert really pours on the campy sci-fi charm, then the band roars into a relentlessly hypnotic and heavy groove, with good 'ol Lemmy doing a bone-rattling bass solo just before the tune winds down. All throughout, the Lemster lays down ferociously melodic and cutting lead-bass as it were. He also gets off a few good ideas on the incurably goofy "Orgone Accumulator" (part of what made Hawkwind so fun). "Master of the Universe" gets the thrashing of its life here, easily putting the studio version to complete shame. This was darn near punk before it was callled such. For sheer rocking out, "Brainstorm" is a manic delight (with a rare searing Brock guitar solo) as is "Lord of Light" with Lemmy giving it all he's got while Nik Turner happily bleats and blats away on his sax!

The Black Holes: Only a couple, "Electronic #1" is a mercifully short noise freakout, and the plodding (until the end) "Space is Deep".

And for real rabid Hawk fans, there are now 3 bonus tracks which include different versions of "Master of the Universe" and "Born To Go", and a previously unheard live version of "You Shouldn't Do That".

Although a recording can never get the full extent of the experience, this is a trip worth taking with our space-farers! Hop aboard for some seriously crunchy, trippy, goofy spacey psychedelic fun!!

Goober McTuber wrote:Not sure how this qualifies as “counter-culture”?

BSmack wrote:

Goober McTuber wrote:Not sure how this qualifies as “counter-culture”?

Any questions?

Goober McTuber wrote:That appears to be drug-fueled psychedelia. The counterculture movement of the 60s and early 70s was about social change. There was certainly plenty of drug use but that album hardly qualifies as “hardcore counterculture”. Based on that sampling, it doesn’t qualify as decent music either.

Goober McTuber wrote:Unfortunately, that whole “drop out” thing was totally misinterpreted by many to just get high and do very little. Kind of counter to the whole counterculture ideal. Hawkwind’s music would seem to embody the get high and do very little model.

I listened to your three samples. Really mediocre when compared to Hendrix, Pink Floyd, the Dead, the Doors, latter day Beatles, etc., if you were going to get totally ripped on blotter and listen to music for 8 or 10 hours.

atomicdad wrote:It 's hard to have a consensus on "the best", but this is in my top 5

BSmack wrote:

Goober McTuber wrote:Unfortunately, that whole “drop out” thing was totally misinterpreted by many to just get high and do very little. Kind of counter to the whole counterculture ideal. Hawkwind’s music would seem to embody the get high and do very little model.

First of all, the ideal that there is a "counterculture ideal" is about as anti-counterculture as I can imagine. Who are you to start defining the "ideal", you patriarchal stooge of the fascist hegemony?

The counterculture of the 1960s began in the United States as a reaction against the social norms of the 1950s, segregation in the Deep South, and the Vietnam War[5][6] In the United Kingdom the counterculture was mainly a reaction against the post-war social norms of the 1940s and 1950s, although "Ban the Bomb" protests centered around opposition to nuclear weaponry.

White middle class youth, for the first time since the Great Depression of the 1930s, had sufficient leisure time to raise concerns about social issues - especially civil rights, the Vietnam War and women's rights. The far-reaching changes that began during the late 1960s and early 1970s affected many aspects of society, creating a social revolution in many industrialized countries. The effects of the 1960s and 1970s counterculture also significantly affected voters and institutions, especially in the U.S. Every Western capital experienced significant protests.

As the 1960s progressed, widespread tensions developed in American society that tended to flow along generational lines regarding the war in Vietnam, race relations, sexual mores, women's rights, traditional modes of authority, experimentation with psychedelic drugs and a predominantly materialist interpretation of the American Dream.

"Turn on, tune in, drop out" is a counterculture phrase coined by Timothy Leary in the 1960s. The phrase came to him in the shower one day after Marshall McLuhan suggested to Leary that he come up with "something snappy" to promote the benefits of LSD. It is an excerpt from a prepared speech he delivered at the opening of a press conference in New York City on September 19, 1966. This phrase urged people to initiate cultural changes through the use of psychedelics and by detaching themselves from the existing conventions and hierarchies in society. The phrase was derided by more conservative critics.

The phrase is derived from this part of Leary's speech: "Like every great religion of the past we seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation in a life of glorification and the worship of God. These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present — turn on, tune in, drop out."

Leary later explained in his 1983 autobiography Flashbacks:

"'Turn on' meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers that engage them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end. 'Tune in' meant interact harmoniously with the world around you - externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives. Drop out suggested an elective, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. 'Drop Out' meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean 'Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity.'"

Goober McTuber wrote:

BSmack wrote:First of all, the ideal that there is a "counterculture ideal" is about as anti-counterculture as I can imagine. Who are you to start defining the "ideal", you patriarchal stooge of the fascist hegemony?

Not my definition, sonny boy.

BSmack wrote:

Goober McTuber wrote:

BSmack wrote:First of all, the ideal that there is a "counterculture ideal" is about as anti-counterculture as I can imagine. Who are you to start defining the "ideal", you patriarchal stooge of the fascist hegemony?

Not my definition, sonny boy.

So what? The whole point is that the counterculture was not some kind of monolithic, Borg-like entity.

BSmack wrote:You cite Leary's definition of "Turn on, tune in, drop out".

BSmack wrote:And now for something completely different to think about...

Making, releasing and touring in support of an album is about as far from "doing nothing" as you can get. In fact, it's about as hyper-ambitious as you can get. Yet you think the music of Hawkwind embodies a "do nothing" approach to life?

They were probably the least political "punk" bands you could possibly name.

Tom In VA wrote:Bad Brains and Minor Threat, when I think '"hardcore", I think of them. Could be because they were local.

Martyred wrote:

You people suck. Seriously.

Martyred wrote:Look, I could recommend "We're the Meatmen...and you suck!" by The Meatmen or The Wacky Hi-Jinx of Adrenalin O.D. by Adrenalin O.D. (both of which I have the original vinyl of)

I just thought I'd mention an artist others may have heard before.

campinfool wrote:

PSUFAN wrote:Never heard of the Meatmen?